The answer returns us to a troubling recent theory known as memory reconsolidation. In essence, reconsolidation is rooted in the fact that every time we recall a memory we also remake it, subtly tweaking the neuronal details. Although we like to think of our memories as being immutable impressions, somehow separate from the act of remembering them, they aren’t. A memory is only as real as the last time you remembered it. What’s disturbing, of course, is that we can’t help but borrow many of our memories from elsewhere, so that the ad we watched on television becomes our own, part of that personal narrative we repeat and retell

False memories refer to the mistaken belief that an event that did not occur, did occur. Much of the research on false memories has focused on the antecedents to and the characteristics of such memories, with little focus on the consequences of false memories. In this research, we propose that exposure to an imagery-evoking ad can result in an erroneous belief that an individual has experienced the advertised brand. We also demonstrate that such false experiential beliefs function akin to genuine product experience beliefs with regard to their outcomes (product attitude valence and attitude strength), a finding we call the false experience effect. We further demonstrate two moderators of this effect–plausibility of past experience and evaluation timing.

I saw this yesterday in the science news, so putting it here. Nothing particularly amazing about the discovery, that people with good memories are just as susceptible to false memories as everyone else:

"While they really do have super-autobiographical memory, it can be as malleable as anybody else's, depending on whether misinformation was introduced and how it was processed," Patihis said. "It's a fascinating paradox. In the absence of misinformation, they have what appears to be almost perfect, detailed autobiographical memory, but they are vulnerable to distortions, as anyone else is."

I think this might be the best thread for me to post more research on implanting false memories, albeit it is outside of advertisements and is more geared toward doctored images overall (all italics are mine):

“Several studies have shown that doctored photographs can implant and alter childhood and adult memories (Wade, Garry, Read, and Lindsay 2002; Garry and Wade 2005; Sacchi, Agnoli, and Loftus 2007). In a study by Wade and colleagues (Wade, Garry, Read, and Lindsay 2002), participants viewed doctored photographs of themselves and a family member taking a hot-air balloon ride, along with photographs of three real events from their childhood. After as few as three interviews 50% of participants reported remembering all or part of the hot-air balloon event. Similar results were reported in Garry and Wade 2005, although the authors did find that images are not as powerful as narratives in stimulating false memories. Adult memories seem to be equally influenced by doctored images. In a study by Sacchi and colleagues (Sacchi, Agnoli, and Loftus 2007), participants were shown original and doctored photographs of memorable public events at which they were present (the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing, and the 2003 protest in Rome against the Iraq war). The doctored images, showing either larger crowds or more violence, changed the way in which participants recalled the events. Images real or fake, have a very real and lasting impact.” Deception09.pdf by Hany Farid, Dartmouth College

Apache wrote:[...] the authors did find that images are not as powerful as narratives in stimulating false memories

In Orwell´s satire Animal Farm (1945), memories are implanted or replaced using a combination of emotional blackmail and well-delivered narrative.

The principles of "Animalism" were one by one being violated by the ruling class of pigs....

Once again the animals were conscious of a vague uneasiness. Never to have any dealings with human beings, never to engage in trade, never to make use of money - had not these been among the earliest resolutions passed at that first triumphant Meeting after Jones was expelled? All the animals remembered passing such resolutions: or at least they thought that they remembered it.

Squealer (a parody of Molotov, and Napoleon's right-trotter pig and minister of propaganda) insinuates that animals that have "forgotten" Napoleon's noble sacrifice are lacking in gratitude or reverence:

The plot was for Snowball, at the critical moment, to give the signal for flight and leave the field to the enemy. And he very nearly succeeded — I will even say, comrades, he would have succeeded if it had not been for our heroic Leader, Comrade Napoleon. Do you not remember how, just at the moment when Jones and his men had got inside the yard, Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? And do you not remember, too, that it was just at that moment, when panic was spreading and all seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of ’Death to Humanity!’ and sank his teeth in Jones’s leg? Surely you remember that, comrades?’ exclaimed Squealer, frisking from side to side. Now when Squealer described the scene so graphically, it seemed to the animals that they did remember it.

Squealer was a small fat pig...

...with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white.

Sorry if I am straying a bit off topic. If anyone wishes to brush up their memory on this little masterpiece of English literature (regardless of what Orwell´s ultimate mission may have been), here is a link to an audiobook read by actor Timothy West.https://www.dropbox.com/s/yqsq0xnh8x0xh ... f.rar?dl=0